Britain Promises Growth In Every Postcode. Check Your Mayoral Coverage.

The British government promises growth in every postcode. Please enter yours below to find out whether your local government has the right administrative shape.

John Healey's Budget puts new money-raising powers in the hands of English regional mayors as part of Prime Minister Andy Burnham's devolution program. The Guardian reports that 14 existing mayoral areas are lined up for enhanced deals and ministers are negotiating further agreements. Areas without a mayor or a special arrangement risk being left behind.

“Every postcode” turns out to be the national ambition. “Participating postcodes” would be a more useful description of the current offer.

There is substance to the plan. Mayors are due to receive 20% of business-rates revenue next year, with the promise of all of it by the end of the decade. They would also gain an overnight visitor levy. Giving local leaders more control can be a real change. It is not, by itself, evidence that the economy has grown. Moving the money drawer closer to the customer is different from putting more money in it.

And before some places can get the new powers, the government has to resolve what those places' governments will be. The reorganization of county and district councils has been suspended amid challenges. Kent is in court over a proposed split into four authorities. Residents awaiting local economic revival may first get to enjoy a prolonged argument about the correct number of Kents.

More deals could bring more places into the system. Medway council's leader says the new agreements broaden the conversation. But Oxford Economics says the Budget's limited detail, unresolved problems and long wait for possible benefits do not warrant changing its regional growth forecasts.

The economists have declined to book the growth merely because the organization chart is looking busy.

A fuller government delivery plan is due next month. For now, there is a promise covering every postcode, a funding structure covering some of them, and another document coming to explain the distance between the two.

Please allow additional delivery time if your address is still being reorganized.